Banbury Merton Street railway station

Banbury Merton Street
Station building in March 1961.
Location
Place	Banbury
Area	Cherwell, Oxfordshire
Grid reference	SP463405
Operations
Original company	Buckinghamshire Railway
Pre-grouping	London and North Western Railway
Post-grouping	London, Midland and Scottish Railway London Midland Region of British Railways
Platforms	2
History
1 May 1850	Opened (Banbury)
By April 1910	Renamed (Banbury Merton Street)
2 January 1961	Closed to passengers
6 June 1966	Closed to goods
Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z

Banbury Merton Street was the first railway station to serve the Oxfordshire market town of Banbury in England. It opened in 1850 as the northern terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway providing connections to Bletchley and Oxford and closing for passengers in 1961 and goods in 1966.

Banbury Merton Street was the northern terminus of the Buckinghamshire Railway which consisted of two lines: one from Bletchley to Banbury and another from Verney Junction to Oxford. Construction of the line had begun in July 1847 but was beset by delays and financial problems; priority was given to the construction of the line to Banbury and this was completed on 30 March 1849, with the section from Claydon to Banbury being built to single track rather than double as had been intended. The Oxford branch was opened on 1 October 1850 as far as Islip, reaching a temporary station at Oxford Road on 2 December.

The line was to be worked from the outset by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) which had supported the building of the line and which was represented on the board of the Buckinghamshire Railway by Edward Watkin who, together with the Duke of Buckingham and local landowner Sir Harry Verney M.P., was one of the driving forces behind the line.

The opening of the line on 1 May 1850 took place amid great celebrations in Banbury; the first train departed at 6.30am to a crowd of onlookers but with few paying passengers. More passengers joined the later trains at 9.45am and 1.45pm which were bound for Bletchley where they were met by flags and a brass band. The LNWR provided an initial service of four trains per day, with special excursion trains being laid on for major events such as the 1851 Great Exhibition which attracted 7,072 passengers. Goods traffic was carried as from 15 May and the railway soon became an important factor in the development of the farm machinery industry which continued until right up to the early 1930s.